Malcom laughed at the comment, still studying her emotions casually, as he laughed. "I can't remember the last time I went out on a date, most of the people that try to hit on me are full of pain medication and delirious from them." He replied with more than a little amusement in  his voice.

Picking up on something he grinned again. "Are you thinking of someone in particular? And of course they can be, it's just harder to see that in them when you're stitching them up or dealing with them loopy as hell." He responded with some cheer. The kitten had once again started playing attack!Gnaw the fingers that were petting it, he chuckled at it. "You're soo cuuute." he chimed in a very musical tone reserved only for small children and pets.

He could feel the stress unwinding itself from the rest of her emotions and relaxed more himself. Perking up at the comment. "Oh? Gaelic then? That's not very common, even up north these days." He admitted, the other Languages in the isles were interesting, especially Welsh. Welsh was like a weird fantasy language.

"Awww, I'm sure they are sincere though. Hard to lie when you've got that many pain killers in your system." She was sure he was joking a little. He was a good looking guy, had a great job and on top of that, was really nice. All he needed was the right wing-woman. Maybe a full day off too. That would be so much fun, if she could grab Raine and cajole her into it, it'd be an amazing night out.

Rather than open up that can of worms she just blushed slightly and laughed it off. When she'd joined she might have had a small crush on one or two members, but she'd quickly learnt that she would not want to date within the team. Seeing how much pain Becca was in everyday being separated from her spouse was a strong lesson. Thankfully a little bit of tactical cuteness distracted him. After this she would owe Bijou so many snuggles.

It was certainly an odd one. Maybe a thousand people in total spoke it as a first language and she could probably count the number of people her age on one hand. Her dad had ranted long enough on the governments banning of their language.

Raising and eyebrow and grinning, "Fairs fair, doctor. I told you a secret, you have to tell me one." It was said in a joking tone but she was genuinely curious to see what he'd share.

The joke brought another burst of laughs out of him, and he shook his head in amusement. "Well I'm not entirely sure on that front, but I generally tend to take people under the influence with a pinch of salt." He chimed, stretching out his arms a little bit.  

Smirking again at her blush he leaned forwards. "Oh, you're definitely thinking of someone in particular, is it someone I know of?" he teased. 

Her emotions were intriguing, he turned back to the pet, giving it more attention, but still paying attention to her emotions themselves. He should probably make it clear to her that he could feel them at some point, but it was interesting to catch people off balance at first. Besides that, he shouldn't have to advertise his power, that would be messed up.

"Huh, well that is interesting."  He replied, thinking for a moment. "I always found it pretty strange, compared to the Latinised languages at least." 

Secret about himself? Hmmm. "My family was part of a large research scandle back in the UK." he replied thoughtfully. Well technically it was his mother that was in it. 

Her blush deepening she answered a bit more firmly. "I am not going to answer that question Mal. Some things are too embarrassing." So she might have had a little bit of an obsession Combatant for a while. Cait just really wanted that hug and she wasn't about to let 'logic' or 'reason' stop her.

It did not help that her luck with men was pretty bad right now. They had either been taken, or gay. Or both. It was a somewhat frustrating trend right now.

"Yeah, its sounds are a little bit weird. Trust me though, reading it is worse," pausing she did have to give it credit for not being the worst one, "then again Welsh is a thing...." That had been an adventure, when she had for some reason, decided to try to learn it. Christ it was like someone had literally planted a fantasy language into the real world.

His admission did peek her interest. What kind of research scandal? What exactly was a research scandal? SHe really should have paid more attention in class when it came to that stuff.

"If you're OK with me asking, what happened?" she asked gently.

Mal's smile widened and he chuckled. "Oh, you're definitely thinking of someone in particular. But that's fine, everyone finds their coworkers attractive at some point I suppose." He winked before petting the kitten a couple more times and standing up to stretch his stiff limbs a bit. There was definite embarrassment under there, so he let the path of the conversation move on from it, better she feel mostly comfortable. 

And there was some frustration under there. Hmmm. Did Cait possibly have bad luck with romantic partners? That was a little hard to believe for Malcom, she was a little crazy for his tastes with the sheer level of perkiness she radiated, but she was pretty awesome to be around in general. And kind of cute on top of that.

He snorted at that. "My dad and I did some research on Latin a while back when he was looking for slogans and all that, it was interesting to see the contrasts between the languages that have spawned from it. English itself was odd, as it's such a miss mash of things." He admitted. Realising he may have been geeking out a bit he rubbed the back of his head a little and smiled again. "Sorry, didn't mean to go all nerd on you there." He chimed.

Aha, curiosity peeked! He shrugged, in no way ashamed of what had happened. He knew that his mother had nothing to do with it. "A couple years before I moved over to the US, my mother's company got into trouble for animal rights infringements when doing research for products and all that, you know the usual kind of corporate scandle. We had animal rights activists and crazies following us and threatening us for a long time." 

He pondered his next input. "It was stressful for a while, but my Mother told me she didn't know about, and had nothing to do with it and I know for a fact she was telling the truth, so I'm completely over it." People dug up all that crap again when his dad started being contracted by prominent senators and all that, but again that wasn't really a problem for Mal. 

As soon as he stood up, she jumped at the chance to coax Bijou back across to her. She was just too cute, playing with her fingers and nibbling at them like little kitties did. It just melted away any stress she had left.

Smiling as he started to enthuse over language, she could well understand the joy he got from that kind of personal research. Languages were so cool when you got into the nitty gritty of how they formed, she'd always believed. It always helped that she seemed to have a fair affinity with learning them, probably thanks to being raised bilingual. Laughing lightly at his comment, she thought it was cute how nerdy he got over it. "Don't worry, I completely agree with how fascinating they get, especially when you see the differences between the Latin and Germanic bases." With how weird English was, it was even cooler to ferret out its strange roots.

Idly entertaining the increasing sleepy cat, she listened attentively to his explanation. She loved animals as much as anyone but threatening a family over a scandal was not only ridiculous, it solved nothing and painted your genuine efforts as crazy as well. Interesting how sure he was over his mothers knowledge of the incident, the fact that he didn't just believe her, he knew she was truthful.

"Wow, that does sound like it would be a tough time. I can't believe people can take those things so far. But thanks for sharing, that was a lot more personal than my secret was." She wasn't about to one up someone for secrets, but she did feel like she should share something more personal about herself.

"Guess it's my turn again, let's see," pausing, she realised what would be perfect and clapped her hands together excitedly. "My power. Have you ever seen it? I can make things, weapons actually. All with my mind and I can move them about too!" Holding out her hand, she focused on an old favourite, and pulled it into the world. Hanging in air stood the glistening, white outline of her rapier. 

Malcom was quite amused by her in general, he was also glad that she shared what seemed to be mostly similar interests. He found language and history to be quite interesting, of course biology and medicine was more his thing. He liked figuring out how people ticked in more way than one, his power had really fed his curiosity over other people quite a lot. Psychology as a result, was a second love.

He met her concerns over the situation with another shrug. "Well it was a bit annoying, but there was other stuff going on around it that was bigger deal for me. Anyway, that whole situation is the reason I ended up over here to begin with, my Dad works here so I moved in with him for the last few years of being a teenager, then ended up studying here." He chuckled. "The US Education system is just a little bit different." He added with a note of sarcasm. 

Her power? Ooooh now that was interesting. She wasn't a very visual mutant like some of the others he'd seen around. When she created a glowing... What was it called? It was one of those traditional fencing weapons. Rapier! That was it. Interesting choice. "You create weapons huh?..." It was really quite pretty actually. Very visual. 

He pondered for a moment. "It's quite beautiful. It suits you well." He observed sincerely. Tilting his head at her he grinned playfully. "It's certainly more visually impressive than mine." He exclaimed. 

Well, if that scandal was why he was here, she wasn't going to be unhappy about. After all, she now had a new friend, someone else to add to the hug book. But what did he mean bigger stuff? Had he had a rough time as a child? She didn't have much experience with that herself, but she was aware at how much it could hurt later in life. Her friends in the base were very good examples.

"I wouldn't know much about the differences personally, but dad has lamented it enough that I can guess it's not...amazing." Her parents had high hopes for her going to university while she was growing up, but when she'd hit high school, nothing really attracted her attention, not as much as music still did.

"I wish I could say he was thrilled when I told him I would be playing in a band for a living." She still did love him though, even if he was as stubborn as a mule.

Letting out a small laugh at his reaction, she sent it spinning lazily in the air for added drama. Her weapons had always looked odd to her, like some half drawn picture given life. "You can hold it if you want, you'd be surprised by the weight of it." Giving him a cheeky, sidelong grin she added, "But don't worry, I'm sure a big, strong man like you can handle it."

Wait, was he a mutant too? Oh. My. God. That was amazing. Not only was her newest friend funny and, lets be honest, cute, he also had his own cool power. "Ooo, do tell, I showed you mine after all."

He beamed at her feeling her concern. God, she was so sweet it was almost intoxicating. He was going to have to be careful to regulate his meetings with her to reasonable intervals, being near her for too long would be akin to getting a sugar rush. And the come down from that would probably be a sucky, because going from somebody so optimistic to grumpy tired out Doctors would be a mood killer.

He laughed. "Yeah, it's very very different overall." He admitted. It was pretty jarring when he first came over. Funnily enough he'd pretty much aced his English classes. Actually he was kind of an excellent student come to think of it. Safe for all the power headaches. And getting into trouble for putting things like ice cubes down other student's backs... 

Shaking his head again at this comment he responded quickly. "They should be. Music is a very creative and admirable pursuit. I wish I had time to sing these days." He admitted.

He peeked at what was going on beneath the surface and chuckled. "I think I'm quite good without embarassing myself thanks." 

Smiling again he shrugged. "Well unfortunately I can't show off anything flashy like you can, Ms Excitable ball of sunshine." he chimed. 

"I think it was more them being worried about me, than them not wanting to be supportive." It had taken some time for them to come around, but now they were pretty on board with her choice. It helped that she was pulling enough work to be comfortable money wise and have 'spare time'.

He sang! Oh this was so great, he was coming to karaoke with them, as soon as she could convince Becca for a work outing. "You do realise now that you've said that, you've signed up for so many open mic nights?"

Damnit, he'd picked up on the subtext. She'd been looking forward to having a little bit of fun with him, harmless of course. Pouting and pretending to be upset, "Of well if you're going to be a party pooper." Scattering the sword she curled back into the chair, fixing her attention on the cat asleep on her lap.

Bursting out laughing, she might have loved that nickname just a little bit. It trumped her other one by a mile. "Aww don't worry, a lot of men have similar problems, from time to time," she added after her fit of giggles, letting her voice carry her joking tone.

"If you don't feel comfortable, you don't need to tell me. I'm just happy to share with someone so fun around here." Leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, "I don't know if you've noticed but some of my team mates are on the grumpy side of the force."

Mal shook his head in some exasperation. How could parents not be supportive of somebody with a rare talent? That was just insane to him. He knew that some people were more complex than they initially appeared to be. But still, if you were willing to have children you should be way more supportive than that. "I'm sorry to hear that Cait." 

He blinked a few times and burst out laughing. "Oh, you're soooo going to regret suggesting that Hun." He smirked. "I'm going to either show all of you up, or perform so badly that I embarrass you guys enough that you never want to show your face again." 

Laughing more he shook his head. "Thank you very much missy, I choose when I'm going to embarrassmyself." He peered at the adorable kitten and snorted again raising his hands and moving them jazz hand-like. "And when I do, I'll laugh. You'll laugh, everyone will laugh and it will be. F***ing glorious." Malcom exclaimed, most confidently. 

He grinned at her. Before snorting at the second comment. "Oh trust me, if anybody is going to pick up on the mood around here, it's me. I'm an Empath hunny~" Before adding. "Oh, and I'm the great fun- No turning it off kind of empath on top of that." 

Regret? She didn't know the meaning of the word when it came to music. There was no such thing. He also had clearly never met some of her friends if he thought she hadn't heard off key singing. She loved them but Jesus, they were no longer allowed to try karaoke. "Try me, Doctor. Ever heard someone sing a beat out of synch? I can go there."

That was a challenge she would happily accept. If he really thought he was free from her pranks, he was sadly mistaken. "Oh I'm sure it will be, and yes, I will laugh, relentlessly. It may also find it's way to the internet in one form or another." Sometimes having hobbies paid off when it came to messing with your friends.

An empath? That was a new one, she wasn't sure if she'd ever met someone who could do that and even worse, he couldn't turn it off. Wow that must be really hard when you worked in a freaking hospital. There was so much pain and fear, so much happiness and joy, how could he handle it? She was gaining a whole new level of respect for the guy. "That's incredible Mal, really. I can't imagine how hard that is to deal with."

Wait, had he been reading her this whole time? That was cheating! No wonder he had caught onto her prank. "Hmm, that makes pranks harder to pull off." Giving him an evil grin, "I'll just have to try harder then."

More hearty laughter followed her comment. She really was an intriguing girl, nobody he knew, nobody, was this cheerful. Malcom wondered how stable she was mentally, because it was a little bit hard to believe anybody had this much happiness just pouring out of them all the time. Nobody was this consistent, she was like a fictional character somebody had come up with just to fill a room with sunshine. 

"Oh great! The internet needs more beautiful smiles on it, I bet I can get a fan base the size of Tom Hiddleston's with this jaw~" He grinned. 

Heh. Feeling her reaction before she was speaking he was pleased to see he'd guessed about right. Some people with particularly strong emotions were easier for him to read. And Cait was somewhat of an open book truth be told. Not that this was in any way a bad thing. "As a matter of fact it was, when I was younger. It made me a little bit angsty and grumpy for a while but I got over it and learned to deal with it in the end." 

Smiles blossomed once more. "Actually, it's a great deal of help when you're treating patients, you'd be surprised at the number of Doctor's who are clueless about people's feelings. Lucky me with my unfair advantage~"

She couldn't help but laugh at his comments, he was very self assured. Well, he was pretty cute, even if he did know it. If she was looking for a relationship he wouldn't be the worst choice. With everything else he was, he was a good guy. That went a long way. "Someone has a good impression of themselves. But I don't know, a little bit of make up, some beautiful tights and you'd do a great Dr Frankenfurter. You've got the perfect cheek bones," she added a cheeky little grin on her mouth.

Him, grumpy? That wasn't possible, he was just so, smiley. "Are you pulling my leg again? Because believing you have an angsty bone in your body is about as hard as believing you can sing as well as you think you can." There was no way he would get away without proving that at some point. There will be karaoke, if she had to drag the machine up those stairs herself.

Cait was so glad her job with the X's had let her meet Mal. She very rarely got to meet people who were so genuinely good people. Using your powers to help people, given the way mutants were treated now, was an amazing risk to put yourself through. "I wouldn't know anything about unfair advantage and no amount of arguments will convince me otherwise." Yeah in a fight her powers were actually amazing. But she didn't want to hurt people and knives, knives are very good at that.

"What made you want to be a doctor in the first place by the way. I don't think I asked."

Mal burst out laughing again, his throat was actually starting to get a little hoarse from the interaction, that was always a good sign when you were talking to new people. Even better, it was a sign that two people were becoming fast friends, which was indeed the case with the two of them. Well... That was unless your first interaction involved a lot of violent screaming or heated arguments, he supposed those could leave your throat drained as well.

"Mmmmm and I look just wonderful in tights or fishnets too~" He joked. Well. Kind of. "I don't suppose you've ever been to a live showing? It's tradition that you dress up." He quickly beamed and flickered out his phone, opening his social media to flick through and find an album of him and his college friends, a bunch of guys and gals dressed up in traditional rocky horror style. Malcom himself had some extra padding in the chest area. "Feast your eyes... on glory!" 

Shaking head in exasperation Malcom replied. "You'd be surprised what going to school with a combination of angry and frisky teenagers will do to you when you can literally feel it." shuddering at the memory, more of himself and the way he dealt with it initially than the actual teenagers and emotions themselves. 

He blinked a few times. Was it really interesting? "Oh! Well, I guess it's because after I manifested my power, at first it was overwhelming. But then the thing that really got me was... how much pain so many people were in just below the surface, where they wouldn't or.. couldn't show it." He responded thoughtfully before adding "And I wanted to take away from that in some way, or just positively contribute to people's lives." Gesturing with his hands down at the hospital. "This is how."